IRC engineers consult with local communities to locate latrine and bathing facilities in areas where women and girls will feel safe using them, and then build them to ensure privacy. Steps like these go a long way in preventing sexual assault and harassment.
By Penninah Mathenge
Maria*, a 38-year-old mother of two in Sierra Leone, is harassed whenever she fetches water for her family from a pump in the middle of a crowded market. Ruby, a 24-year-old single woman in Liberia, was raped as she bathed in a river. Byamungu, a 12-year-old girl in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was gang raped in the bush, where she had gone because her village had no latrine.